I have an alternate account I have been attempting to have merged into my main account. I edited the profile to make it very clear that it is mine. I followed the merge instructions in the Help Center and submitted my request. Someone replied and asked me to update the hidden "full name" field of both accounts to be "merge me", and I did that as well.

But then I received this reply (emphasis mine):

One of the accounts in your requested merge belongs to a Team in our Stack Overflow for Teams service. Due to this, we will require direct approval from an Admin on that Team that approves the merge. Once the admin has reached out to us with that approval, we will have our devs perform the merge and inform you when it is completed.

Apparently there is a policy that in order to merge one of my accounts, I need to reach out to the admin of every team I'm in, and have them submit the merge request on my behalf.

However... neither of my accounts is currently in any team. There have been in teams in the past, but that was more than a month ago.

Perhaps there is a bug in the system the agents are using to identify whether an account is a member of a team.

I can see why you'd need permission from current teams - after all they need to make sure you're who you say you are. I can't see why you'd need it for previous teams though - unless that membership can be reactivated.
– ChrisF♦Jan 12 at 19:53

@JeremyBanks have you ever posted in the teams you were a member of?
– MEE the sneaky userJan 15 at 17:29

@JeremyBanks ok, if they have been deleted that is strange... Then it is probably that you voted in one of the teams.
– MEE the sneaky userJan 15 at 17:48

2

Working on it. :) Appreciate your patience with us. This is one of those things that we're still working out. Merging is relatively uncommon, merging with a Team, even moreso, and merging with an account that used to be part of a Team that's no longer on a Team... well, you like being an edge case. ;)
– Catija♦Jan 15 at 22:44

1 Answer
1

We've run through the various scenarios subsequent to leaving a team and determined that all the ways to re-join a team are not affected by a merge.

Joining by email domain means you still have control of the email address

Joining by invite requires an invite from a Team admin

Joining after being de-activated by a Team admin requires admin intervention

That said, we won't be allowing automated merges right now; it still requires support to be involved because of the (minimal) risk of exposing a company's data to eyes that shouldn't have access. That generally means additional checks to ensure the person that owns the accounts can demonstrate ownership.